By Missions of the Republic of Uzbekistan to the Benelux countries, the EU and NATO.
22 March is declared by the United Nations General Assembly as the «World Day for Water» in 1993.According the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the access to safe drinking water and sanitation was among the most urgent issues affecting populations across the globe.
Despite progress under the Millennium Development Goals, UN believes that some 750 million people, or more than 1 in 10 of the world’s population, remain without access to an improved water supply, the UN has reported. Moreover, the statistics on sanitation remain “even less encouraging” as some 2.5 billion people around the world still live without improved sanitation while another one billion practise open defecation.
That is why Ban Ki-moon declared that the perils of climate change increasingly threaten the planet, the international community must unite in a spirit of urgent cooperation to address the many water-related challenges facing humanity. During the next decade, tensions and conflicts over access to water are likely to become more frequent and could endanger stability and security in many parts of the world.
Managing the effects of climate change and demographic and economic development, as well as reconciling different uses of water resources such as drinking water and sanitation, agriculture, food production, industry and energy, are major water security challenges. Environmental problems and water management in Central Asia are the most serious challenges for further stable and sustainable development of region.
In this regard, we welcome the EU Foreign Affairs Council Conclusions on Water Diplomacy of 22 July 2013, which calls for the promotion of the international UN conventions on use of trans-boundary watercourses which are important instruments to promote equitable, sustainable and integrated management of trans-boundary water resources. One of the gravest global environmental disasters of modern times is the tragedy of the Aral Sea facing the countries of Central Asia and their population of some 60 million.
Its environmental, climatic, socioeconomic and humanitarian consequences make it a direct threat to sustainable development in the region, and to the health, gene pool and future of the people living there.
The problems of the Aral Sea arose and expanded into a threat in the 1960s, as a result of the feckless regulation of the major cross-border rivers in the region – the Syr Darya and Amu Darya, which had previously provided some 56 cubic kilometres of water to the Aral Sea each year.
A jump in the population in the area, urbanization, intensive land development and the construction of major hydrotechnical and irrigation facilities on the water courses of the Aral Sea basin carried out in previous years without regard for environmental consequences led to the dessication of one of the most beautiful bodies of water on the planet.
Over the past 50 years, the total outflow from rivers into the Aral Sea has fallen almost 4.5 times, to an average of 12.7 cubic kilometers. The area of the sea’s surface is eight times smaller than it was, and the water volume has decreased by more than a factor of 13.The sand-salt Aralkum desert, with a surface area of more than 5.5 million hectares, is inexorably taking over the Aral region and now covers the dried-up portion of the sea that was once home to a wealth of flora and fauna and served as the natural climatic regulator of the adjacent areas.
A complex set of ecological-climatic, socioeconomic and demographic problems with far-reaching, threatening global consequences has arisen in the Aral Sea region. Water pollution and the large salt and dust discharge from the bottom of the desiccated sea have contributed to the spread among the population of the Aral Sea region of a number of somatic diseases such as anaemia, diseases of the kidneys, blood, digestive system, respiratory organs and cardiovascular system, gallstones and other diseases.
In order to mobilize the efforts of the world community to implement programs and projects dedicated to improving the environmental and socio-economic situation in the region of the Aral Sea and to boosting the international cooperation to weather the negative repercussions of the ecological disaster, an international conference “Cooperation in the Region of the Aral Sea Basin to Alleviate the Impact of the Environmental Catastrophe” took place on 28-29 October in the city of Urgench.
In the framework of the conference a number agreements were signed for the implementation of national and regional projects in of 3 bln USD and 200 mln. USD out of them are the grants.
It was attended by officials of 24 prominent international and regional organizations, financial institutions, among them being the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia, the International Groundwater Resources Assessment Center, the Asian Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, as well as scientists and experts in the fields of environmental sciences, climate change, water resources management from 26 nations, including Austria, Hungary, Germany, Spain, China, Latvia, Malaysia, the United States, France, Switzerland, South Korea, Japan among others.
The efficient use of water and energy resources is of particular importance for the region and this issue directly affects the lives of tens of millions of people whose livelihoods depend on a stable and timely supply of water for drinking and irrigation.
The Amudarya and Syrdarya – the two major trans-boundary rivers of Central Asia have historically been a common good and the source of life for the nations of the region. The Aral Sea basin is supplied with water from the flow of these rivers.
Therefore implementation of any plans to construct the new large hydropower stations with gigantic on a global scale dams, according to many competent specialists, shall lead to disruption of the natural flow of these rivers which is fraught with most dangerous ecological and social-economic consequences.
Taking this into consideration, such plans on constructing hydropower facilities at the international watercourses should be preliminarily endorsed by all interested countries. In this regard, while constructing any dams or hydraulic structures on trans-boundary rivers the following basic principles should be taken into account:
First, the watercourse and volume of water coming down to countries located lower course of the transboundary rivers should not be diminished, especially in the growing season.
Second, the implementation of such projects should not degrade the environmental situation in the region, taking into account the already existing negative situation in the region due to the drying of the Aral Sea.
Thirdly, one must exclude the possibility of life technogenic disasters, given the fact that the region has a tectonic fault with seismicity of 9-10 magnitude on the Richter scale.
Moreover the usage of water resources trans boundary rivers of Central Asia should base on the norms of international law, and in particular, the provisions of the UN Convention on the Protection and Use of Trans-boundary Watercourses and International Lakes of 1992 and the Convention on the Law of Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses of 1997. Uzbekistan That is why the EU Council of Ministers in its conclusions on EU water diplomacy of 27 July 2013 expresses concern about the water security situation in many parts of the world and in particular in Central Asia. Uzbekistan believes that any efforts related to the water usage in Central Asia, first of all, should take into account the improving of life conditions of population in of Aral Sea region and implemented from the point of achieving the following purposes:
- Creation of conditions for life, reproduction and preservation of the gene pool in the Aral Sea region.
- II. Improved measures to manage and save water, protecting natural bodies of water in the Aral Sea catchment area.
- III. Implementation of large-scale measures to plant forests on the dessicated bed of the Aral Sea and prevent desertification in the regionIV. Preservation of biodiversity, restoration of biological resources and protection of flora and fauna.
- Further institutional reinforcement and strengthening of cooperation between countries in the region, in the framework of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea.
